


Who the Hell Said High School was Easy?

by anythingkorean



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempt at Humor, Breaking Up & Making Up, But it's okay, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Heavy Angst, I'm Bad At Tagging, Platonic Cuddling, Reconciliation, Slow Burn, and summaries, but nothing is ever platonic is it, except don't take my word for it, kpop cameo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-13 02:05:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14740016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anythingkorean/pseuds/anythingkorean
Summary: “- Jeonghan! Not like that!”The class watches as Jeonghan somehow manages to lose grip of his cow eyeball and watches it fly towards the ceiling. Hitting it with a thud, it falls back to the ground and lands with a disgusting plop. Jeonghan nearly gags, seeing the half busted eyeball rolling on the floor for a while before stopping in front of Seungcheol’s chair in front of him. It spins around a little as if it needed to emphasize how bad Jeonghan messed up.Jeonghan can’t really do anything but smile sheepishly at his teacher, trying to ignore the fact that he just sent an eyeball rocketing for the ceiling and then it popping open. He shrugs his shoulders all the way up to his ear and lets out an, “I tried?”--Or: It's another Seventeen takes on high school au! Except it's nothing like the High School Musical movies that Seungkwan makes everyone watch. Love is never as simple as confessing, schoolwork doesn't allow time for spontaneous hangouts whenever they want, and enemies don't just bond over a song.Really, those people should be sued for false advertisement.





	1. When you try your best....and you don't even come close to succeeding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw ive never read catcher in the rye

“Hey guys, I just got suspended, how’s your day going?” Minghao plops down on the cafeteria seat and sprawls his upper body out on the table. 

 

“It’s lunch. What the fuck could you have possibly done to get suspended? It’s literally- you know what, whatever.” Seungcheol pops a chip in his mouth and Jihoon stomps on his foot when he doesn't close his mouth. Seungcheol flushes and swallows quickly. He then apologizes for not chewing correctly and proceeds to smack Mingyu in the face when he says ‘whipped’ under his breath.

Minghao shrugs. It’s not his first rodeo with the headmaster. They’re pretty close now, actually. He knows this suspension won’t even make it onto his records as long as he promises to keep out of trouble for at least two months. 

 

“Some dumbass walking stick touched my photo.  _ With his bare hand _ . I had it fucking printed on a twenty one times nineteen canvas, what kind of dumbass  _ art _ student doesn’t know to not touch other people’s shit?  _ Especially _ if it’s big!”

 

“Yeah, but what did you  _ do _ ?” Jeonghan has his chin on his palm, leaning forward with a smile on his face. He’s a bad influence, really, encouraging Minghao’s behavior rather than trying to stop it.  _ It’s just a teen thing, don’t worry. He’ll outgrow it _ . 

 

Jeonghan sounds like his mom sometimes. 

 

“I like, threw a paint can at him.”

 

“You  _ what _ ?”

 

Minghao rolls his eyes at Seungcheol. “Calm down,  _ grandpa, _ I meant that I splattered it on him. Did you really think I’d chuck a metal can at his face?”

 

Jihoon takes a sip of his juice. “I’m sure you considered it.”

 

Jeonghan, Seungcheol, and Mingyu giggle at the joke. Minghao kicks Mingyu since he’s the closest person to him. Mingyu howls and tries to kick Minghao back but he spins around and stands up. 

 

Minghao makes a mocking face and sticks out his tongue. “Oh wow, did you decide to crack open your big boy vocab? Consider, must’ve taken you a while!”

 

Jihoon looks at him with a deadpan face. “That made no sense.”

 

Wonwoo wilts forward like a dying flower. “I know. Anyways, let me know if anything happens.”

 

“Honestly, you’re probably the only thing that happened.” Jeonghan says it in a sing-song voice, which doesn’t really match the sentence and makes Minghao glare in annoyance but also raise his brow in confusion. 

 

“Um, okay,  _ bitch, _ listen up-”

 

“Xu Minghao! Language!” 

 

The headmaster’s voice rings through the cafeteria. Every other student immediately looks down at their food, pretending like they can’t see or hear. But Jeonghan snickers and the principal gives him a dirty glare. 

 

“Yeah, I know, sorry, I’m leaving. See you  _ hoes _ tomorrow!”

 

Before the headmaster can say anything else, Minghao grabs his bag from the floor and saunters out into the hall. Jeonghan calls out after him to stay safe with pretend concern lacing his sweet voice.

 

God, everyone in his school is a fake bitch.

 

-

-

 

Wonwoo slips in a bookmark in between the pages of the book he’s reading. It’s a favorite of his,  _ Catcher in the Rye _ , a simple read yet he sees new things each time he cracks it open. 

 

The library is quiet, with only a surprisingly number of students scattered around the room. There’s two by the computers, both with headphones plugged in. One other student sits at the far table, reading and marking something up. 

 

Wonwoo looks at the clock and sees that he’s still got forty minutes left of lunch so he packs up his backpack quickly and heads out the door. He’s thankful that he goes to a nice high school; students are allowed to roam free after lunch as long as they aren’t late to the next class. 

 

Granted, it’s private and has a small student body with rich kids demanding that they have their freedom, but it’s whatever. 

 

“Wonwoo! Wonwoo!”

 

Wonwoo squeezes his eyes and bites back a groan. Instead of frowning at Mingyu, he plasters on a tight, small smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. 

 

“Mingyu. How are you today? Isn’t the weather nice?” Wonwoo bites his tongue. He sounds like a creepy fifty year old professor ready to jump a student. 

 

“God, you’re so formal. Relax a little, I’ve known you since you were five!”

 

Wonwoo’s ear hurts. Mingyu is too loud for his liking. Everything about his neighbor is _too_ _much_ for his liking. 

 

“You don’t need to be so loud, Mingyu. I’m literally a foot away from you.”

 

Mingyu gives him a goofy smile. “I know, I’m too loud sometimes, sorry. I’ll be quiet. Anyways, did you hear what happened to Minghao?”

 

Wonwoo doesn’t get a chance to answer because Mingyu cuts him off again. “He got suspended for a day. The head Ssaem didn’t really seem to care, so whatever. But it’s like, his millionth times since freshman year getting into trouble like this. I don't think-”

 

Wonwoo clears his throat. “You’re rambling again.”

 

“Ah, sorry. I’ll stop, it must be annoying.”

 

Wonwoo looks away when Mingyu flushes a dark pink. The blush looks comical on top of his tan skin. 

 

“Whatever.”

 

-

-

 

Unless one was deaf  _ and _ blind, it’s really impossible to miss Jeonghan’s presence in a room. The dramatic air that hangs around him  _ demands _ attention,  _ craves  _ it, making people involuntarily turn their heads in slow motion when he passes by. 

 

Jeonghan  _ lives _ for it. 

 

Except right now, because he’s not living in it. He’s doing quite the opposite, really. He feels like he’s been broken as a person, his whole entire  _ reason for existence,  _ gone. 

 

Because the new,  _ cute _ guy that’s been assigned as his new bio partner doesn’t even bat an eye when he takes a seat next to him. He just reads the instructional packet indifferently, only twitching his eyes up when the chair Jeonghan drags out scrapes quietly on the floor. 

 

“Hey! I’m Jeonghan, are you new?” Jeonghan lightly taps the new kid’s shoulder and puts on a cute smile, making sure his eyes crinkle and his nose scrunches a little. It’s a technique one can only hope to master. 

 

The  _ cute _ guy looks up and blinks. Jeonghan watches with interest as his double eyelids crease back slowly and his lashes flutter. His mouth is set in a firm line. He looks bored, uninterested, and  _ not, _ as Jeonghan hoped,  _ flustered _ .

 

“Yeah. I am. I’m Jisoo.” 

 

_ Jisoo _ goes back to reading his book, a long finger swiping a page and the sound of paper on paper is the only sound Jeonghan can hear for a little. Jeonghan just lets out an annoyed huff and puts on his gloves, holding out his scalpel. The new kid next to him takes out a notebook, apparently assigning himself to be notetaker. Jeonghan pushes down a scoff. 

 

“I hope you know what you’re doing. I hate people who pretend to do things and then dump everything on me.” Jeonghan adds a light lilt to his voice, keeping his steady, ever-increasing megawatt smile. 

 

““You know, I don’t like people like you very much. Stop fluttering your lashes, you’re giving me a headache.”

 

_ What?  _ Jeonghan blubbers around his words like a fish until he collects himself. “Excuse me? People like me? You mean the amazingly talented, beautiful, shinier-than-a-shining-star, everyone-loves-them kind of people? I’m,  _ offended, _ really.”

 

“Yeah, people like you. You think you’re high up there, you abuse your looks, you play with feelings, you have no consideration for how others feel. I know the type. And stop trying to touch my arm. ” Jeonghan looks down and with a disgusted “hmph”, he draws his hands away from Jisoo’s general area. He decides to look around the classroom. 

 

The rest of the kids are already poised with their scalpels just above the eye so Jeonghan follows suit, forcing himself to not  _ whimper like a bitch _ when one gloved hand makes contact with the solid, cold eyeball. But Jisoo must’ve picked up on a small whine and scoffs. Jeonghan shoots him a glare. 

 

_ God, I wanna run this scalpel through his eye, what is this jerk? I just came here to make friends and I’m getting attacked? _ He shakes his head. (He’s been brutally murdered, really.)

 

“Okay, class, now, following the directions, make a small incision on the sclera, careful to not hit the optic nerve. We will observe how the-  _ Jeonghan! Not like that! _ ”

 

The class watches as Jeonghan somehow manages to lose grip of his cow eyeball and watches it fly towards the ceiling. Hitting it with a thud, it falls back to the ground and lands with a disgusting plop. Jeonghan nearly gags, seeing the half busted eyeball rolling on the floor for a while before stopping in front of Seungcheol’s chair in front of him.  It spins around a little as if it needed to emphasize how bad Jeonghan messed up.

 

Jeonghan can’t really do anything but smile sheepishly at his teacher, trying to ignore the fact that he just sent an eyeball rocketing for the ceiling and then it  _ popping _ open. He shrugs his shoulders all the way up to his ear and lets out an, “I tried?” 

 

Jisoo’s mouth is open in shock and he drops his pencil, which rolls right next to the eyeball and only stops once the goop makes it unable to roll more.

 

Mr. Kim swallows and stares at Jeonghan with dead eyes. He just sighs and points to the back of the class.  _ Get another cow eyeball and don’t fuck up this time _ . Mr. Kim’s head hangs down with utter disappointment and exhaustion.

 

Jeonghan clicks his tongue and gives Mr. Kim finger guns. 

 

He doesn’t really know what else to do but there’s no way in  _ anything _ , heaven, hell, Mount Olympus, jail, he’s  _ not  _ cleaning up his smashed up cow eyeball. 

 

-

-

 

Soonyoung smacks the backside of Jihoon’s head just before the teacher walks by. Jihoon jolts up and shoots Soonyoung a scathing glare but quickly picks up a pencil and starts scribbling furiously on the worksheet in front of him. 

 

Soonyoung rolls his eyes when the teacher frowns at Jihoon but doesn’t say anything. Once he’s gone, Soonyoung points to the floor. 

 

Jihoon looks down and sees a folded post it, one that Soonyoung had wrote something on earlier. 

 

_ Did Seungcheol ask you eat you out yet? _

 

Jihoon must be done reading it because he writes something down and tosses it back to Soonyoung. 

 

_ Do you want to fucking fight me because square the fuck up, Soonyoung.  _

 

Soonyoung hides a giggle by coughing. He starts writing on his paper again, folds it up, and tosses it over to the table. 

 

_ Just checking. We all know that Seungcheol would legit fuck you on a bleacher if you let him. Or he’d let you fuck him just because he’s like that.  _

 

Jihoon gives Soonyoung a dead expression, writes a response, and all but fires the piece of paper to him. 

 

Soonyoung chokes on air and Jihoon sticks up the finger. 

 

_ Don’t tell me what you want to do to Seokmin. Except your flabby, two centimeter dick wouldn’t be able to do anything. _

 

Soonyoung sighs. 

 

He’d so let Seokmin fuck him against the gym bleachers. He flips the scrap paper to the other side because there’s no room left on the front. Quickly scrawling out his answer, he folds it up and tosses it to Jihoon. 

 

Jihoon’s mouth opens in shock when he reads what Soonyoung wrote. 

 

_ Duh. Can you ask him if he likes doggy style or face fucking, it’d be for me, anyways. _

 

Jihoon crumples up the paper and slams his head down on his desk. The teacher looks up from the front of the room but then sighs. Soonyoung suspects that she wishes she could do the same. 

 

Soonyoung taps Jihoon’s shoulder and whispers, “By the way, Seungcheol told me once that he likes guys who can play with themselves in front of him before sex. And also-”

 

Jihoon stands up and his chair nearly topples over. “Ssaem! May I go the the bathroom?”

 

The teacher does nothing to answer but jerk her head to the door, going back to grading papers. 

 

“Are you going to practice?” Soonyoung snickers. 

 

Jihoon slowly turns his head to look at Soonyoung. He’s got a deadpan expression on his face, one that screams,  _ I would love to bash your face in but as you can see we are currently situated in a public setting and so I must resort to my imagination for a semblance of satisfaction. _

 

“Sometimes, I’m glad I’m small. I can flush myself down a toilet without getting stuck.”

 

Soonyoung snorts and rolls his eyes. He thinks it’s cute when Jihoon thinks he’s being as what the young kids call, ‘relatable.’

 

That didn’t even make any sense. 

 

-

-

 

Jun sighs as he curls his lanky body as close as he can to his body. His knees dig in sharply against the front of his shoulders and if he twitches too much, his head hits the top of the desk. 

 

But it’s better than facing hard, cold reality so Jun continues to take in awkward, shaky breaths as he focuses on not accidently sending a knee into his face. 

 

There’s a knock on the table leg and then a black haired boy crouches down and faces him. “Hey, got any room under there?”

 

Jun makes a couple of noises, mostly trying his best to string together a korean sentence. 

 

“What?”

 

“You look lonely. Mind if I join?” Jun silently does his best to side-shuffle on his butt to try and make room for the mystery man in front of him. 

 

“Hello, I am Jun. Sorry for my Korean, I do not know how to speak it very well.”

 

“It’s fine, you’re pretty good. I’m Wonwoo, by the way.”

 

Jun flushes. He’s glad that Wonwoo isn’t judging for his pronunciation; he’s been getting funny giggles and looks the whole day and he’s close to just getting like, voice box surgery or something to change it. Even though there’s no such thing, it’s nice to contemplate. 

 

“Ah, thank you. But why are you here? Aren’t you cramped?”

 

Wonwoo gives him a chuckle. It’s a small one, presumably because if either of them move too much their heads would hit the desk. It’s even more squished inside with two grown men under the table, nearly impossible at this point to breathe in normally without having a rib knock into an elbow. 

 

“It is. Wanna go out? Then maybe you can tell me why you’re hiding out under a table during study hall.”

 

Jun nods and slowly crawls out, Wonwoo following suit. He sees that the class is pretty much empty and wonders what Wonwoo was doing here, so he decides to ask.

 

“No one else is here, in this room. How come you were here?”

 

“This room is usually empty so I tend to come here to study, since I like quiet. Now, tell me why you were under the desk.”

 

“Because it was my fault that Minghao? Yes, Minghao was gotten in trouble. I didn’t mean to make him upset but I touched his art. Everyone knows you can’t touch someone else’s art.”

 

Wonwoo tilts his head to the side and takes a seat on a chair. “Still doesn’t really explain what you were doing down there.”

 

“I don’t know, I felt scared, I guess. Making friends is hard when you can not speak the language. Everyone that has heard me talk made fun of me. Going under the table was more for feeling safe.”

 

Wonwoo gives him a little smile. “Well, from now on, you’re going to be my friend. Which means you’re going to get nine more of us as a free addition. You’re not going to be lonely anymore, okay?”

 

Jun bites his lip, nearly tearing up. Wonwoo seems to sense that he’s emotional and stands up to hug him. He’s beyond words right now, thankful for the first time that he’s moved. It’s just the simple notion of  _ being _ with someone else right now that sends Jun into bouts of emotional turmoil, debating on whether he should seriously give Wonwoo a thousand million dollars or to just let him be. 

 

“Thank you, Wonwoo-ssi. You have been a great help.” Jun no longer feels the choking, stifling feeling in his chest. 

 

“It’s just Wonwoo, okay?” Jun nods as an answer, chin rubbing against Wonwoo’s shoulder.

 

Maybe this year won’t suck after all. 

-

-

 

Seokmin nearly topples over his pyramid of mason jars when his bedroom door swings open and Soonyoung enters. 

 

“Sweetie-pie! You’re here!” Seokmin dramatically opens his arms and Soonyoung dutifully falls into them.

 

“Honey-kins! Yeah, I am!” The two of them crack up and then when the laughter dies down, Soonyoung asks, “What’s with all the mason jars?”

 

“Oh, I was trying to see if they’d hold up like this, I was going for an aesthetic. You know, put little succulents in the jar and then like, stack them up.”

 

“Wouldn’t the plants die without oxygen?”

 

“Don’t they make their own?”

 

Soonyoung blinks. “I, I don’t think it works that way, Seokmin.”

 

Seokmin giggles and motions with his arms for Soonyoung to take a seat next to him on the bed. Seokmin lays down on his side. Soonyoung follows. 

 

Seokmin wraps an arm around Soonyoung’s waist and leans in more to bury his head into Soonyoung’s hair. It smells like coconuts and something else a little fruity. He closes his eyes really tightly and then squeezes Soonyoung’s waist in a nearly constricting manner. 

 

“Even your hair smells good, Soonyoungie. Everything about you is so,  _ so _ perfect.”

 

The two of them stay in their spoon position until Soonyoung turns around and pouts at Seokmin. 

 

“Seokmin.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“When are we going to tell people? I’m seriously getting sick of pretending like we aren’t together. Aren’t you?”

 

Seokmin ignores the hurt in his voice and presses a kiss into Soonyoung’s mouth, gently licking his boyfriend's lips and closing his eyes. He knows it’s a dick move - trying to distract Soonyoung by kissing him. It works  _ most _ of the time, anyways.

 

But Soonyoung pulls away. His cheeks are flushed, which makes Seokmin’s heart flutter. 

 

“Stop that, Seokmin. I mean it. When are you going to get over-”

 

“Soon, babe. I promise.”

 

Soonyoung opens his mouth but then closes it. He lets out a defeated sigh and taps his forehead with a finger. 

 

Seokmin laughs and indulges him with a forehead kiss. 

 

But Soonyoung doesn’t giggle like he usually does and Seokmin knows it’s his fault.

 

-

-

 

Jihoon groans when Seungkwan enters the door with a fury burning in his eyes. 

 

“Hyung! I need  _ revenge _ ! I must exact my payback-”

 

“Seungkwan, if this is about Hansol, you can go fuck yourself with a drumstick, I don’t care. Go rant to, God, I don’t know, Jeonghan or something.”

 

Jihoon goes back to tapping his pencil against the side of the piano as he starts to try and come up with a new melody. 

 

“I did! He said that ‘as much as I love you, babe, I’d rather get my ass eaten out by a vulture.’ You can’t even find those in Korea!” Seungkwan looks at his feet before letting out a small, “Dick.  _ You’re _ the vulture, preying on any pretty thing that moves. Jeez.”

 

Jihoon snorts. “As if he wouldn't enjoy that. And also, vultures don’t eat things that are alive, Seungkwan. And I’ll be nice, just so you don’t go secretly curse me out to someone else. Go.”

 

Seungkwan dramatically sucks in a breath like he’s ready to dive thirty feet and launches into his tirade with gusto. “Okay, so I was in the music room during lunch, right? And I had to freaking practice my song, but you know how I get in front of people, all stressed and sc- okay, whatever. Anyways, I put the fucking video for the dance that went along with the song and I tried to practice that, but then fucking  _ Hansol _ was apparently recording it from behind the desk! That little  _ slut _ , I’m going to drop kick his ass all the way to China and then hunt him down so I can have the satisfaction of-”

 

“God,  _ shut up _ .” Jihoon stands up from the bench. “Are you sure you wanna keep singing? You’ve got quite the dramatic-”

 

Seungkwan sqwaks. “I am  _ not _ dramatic, I’m just overly  _ expressive _ , there’s a  _ difference _ !” 

 

“Okay, you’re  _ overly expressive, _ sure. But honestly, stop blowing everything that Hansol does to you out of proportion. It’s because he likes you, we’ve been  _ over _ this before. Like, two hours ago, actually.”

 

Seungkwan flushes. Jihoon doesn’t know if it’s because of embarrassment, a sudden shyness, or increasing frustration. 

 

“What ever, he’s still a dick. He  _ giggled _ when I screamed and he showed me the dancing! He fucking dared to  _ giggle _ ! In front of me! I don’t even freaking-  _ ugh! _ ” Seungkwan all but tosses himself onto the floor and starts smacking the floor with his hands and legs like a fucking child. Jihoon feels his eye twitch. 

 

Jihoon rolls his eyes. “Because he  _ likes _ you. When are you going to give him a breaK?”

 

“When you do the same to Seungcheol hyung.” Seungkwan’s eyes narrow and he smiles creepily. Jihoon nearly slams Seungkwan into the xylophones but deems his wish to be unprofessional and even so much as  _ unsightly _ in the eyes of others so he refrains for time being. He decides to curl his fingers around his wrist instead. 

 

“Go away, shoo. Go back to your daycare!” Jihoon makes the  _ get away from here because I’m embarrassed I can’t come up with a comeback  _  motion with his hands and can hear Seungkwan’s laugh all the way until he’s at the end of the hall. 

 

-

-

 

Mingyu leans against the metal lockers as he waits for Wonwoo to show up. Being next door neighbors, Mingyu has made it a point for the last seven years to walk home together everyday. And before that, in the early years of elementary school, their parents had arranged carpools so they’d be driven home together everyday.

 

Needless to say, Mingyu has looked forward to the end of the school day for the entirety of his educational life because it meant being with Wonwoo a little longer. Bonus if Wonwoo was feeling sociable enough to invite him in or accepted Mingyu’s invitation for ice cream in the summer. 

 

“Wonwoo! Hi!” Mingyu waves when he sees Wonwoo come near his locker. He smiles when he sees Wonwoo’s hair kind of bounce when he walks. It’s cute, along with every single other thing about Wonwoo. 

 

“You act like you haven’t seen me in days, Mingyu. Move, I’ve got to open my locker.” Mingyu grins and pushes himself off the locker, allowing Wonwoo to get to his stuff. 

 

“By the way, we’ve got to wait for someone else. The new kid, Hong Jisoo, lives on our street. Next to mine, actually. I’m supposed to walk home with him for a week until he memorizes the directions.”

 

Mingyu smiles. “‘Kay.” His heartbeat speeds up when Mingyu picks up that Wonwoo said ‘ _ we’ve got to wait _ .’ Mingyu turns around like some seventh grade school girl as he blushes. He’s so happy that he decides to ignore that there’s going to be a whole addition of human boy walking with them.

 

_ Maybe he thinks walking together is our thing _ . 

 

Mingyu has to physically suppress a squeal by pressing down on his chest. 

 

Wonwoo’s phone dings and he takes it out, reading a text quickly. 

 

“Nevermind, a teacher kept him behind so he told me to go first. You ready?”

 

Mingyu grins. “Yeah, sure am!” Mingyu attempts to throw an arm around Wonwoo but then Wonwoo shoves him off. 

 

“C’mon! Lemme do it, lemme do it!” Mingyu throws on a pout and clasps his hands together but all he gets is a stern look. Wonwoo starts walking again and Mingyu sighs loudly before falling back in step with Wonwoo. 

 

“Why are you so fucking childish, Gyu. Grow up already.” Mingyu’s smile falters a little but then he meets Wonwoo’s eyes so he shoves the corner of his lips up again. 

 

“Sorry, Wonwoo, I’ll stop.”

 

Wonwoo just hitches his bag onto his shoulders and silently keeps walking. 

 

Mingyu plays the stinging in his chest as indigestion. He did eat faster than normal today, after all. He’ll take a TUMS at home or whatever. 

 

-

-

 

Jisoo waits patiently in front of the English teacher, Ms. Ahn. He’s been ‘recruited’ (forced against his poor will, really, by his mother) to tutor someone who’s failing english right now (someone who has fucking  _ c,  _ that’s not even a  _ fail, what the fuck? _ ) for extra credit (his mother insisted.) She’s grading papers right now, frowning or smiling delicately, based on the numbers of red marks each paper holds. 

 

She makes the most comically disgusted face when Jisoo sees that the paper in front of her in the new owner of a big, fat, 31%. Jisoo pretends to not see it, just so he doesn’t feel the second hand embarrassment of it. There’s a knock on the door and Ms. Ahn says, “Come in!” in a gentle voice. 

 

Jeonghan, that stupidly rude, terribly-incompetent-at-biology-labs flower boy from earlier, steps into the room and bows. Ms. Ahn gives him a greeting but Jisoo just stares dumbly. Jeonghan finally sees him and when he does, his eyes flash in a strange emotion. 

 

Fear? 

 

Ms. Ahn clears her throat. “Jisoo, this is your new ‘student’, as I’d like to call it.” Jeonghan immediately gathers all of the theatrical knowledge of past Hollywood starlets and gather his arms to start a spiel.

 

“Ssaem! You can’t, you can’t do this to me! I can’t work with him, you can’t! Why not put me with like, Jihoon or somethin! I don’t wanna do it, I don’t wanna, I can’t, I  _ refuse _ -”

 

“You’ve got quite the flair for dramatics, Jeonghan. Are you sure you aren’t a drama student?” Ms. Ahn gives him a strong glare. “You’re the one who bugged me for a tutor so you could raise your grade to at least a B by the end of the year, I am  _ not _ finding someone else, and you are  _ not _ going to complain.”

 

Jeonghan’s face turns white. “Ssaem, you don’t get it-”

 

Jisoo decides it’s time to intervene. “Ms. Ahn, I really must agree with Jeonghan on this one. It may be best to recon-”

 

Ms. Ahn’s face turns red with anger, her light blue nails digging into the arm of her chair. Jisoo gulps when he sees a hint of stuffing peeking out from under where her nails stab into the chair. “Both of you, grow up. Jeonghan, it’ll be at your home, I’ve already called your mother-”

 

Jeonghan scoffs. “She wouldn’t care if you told her Jisoo was a suspected axe murderer who like to make hamburgers out of his victims or a person with a strong desire to turn skin into dish soap, she’d still let him step into the house without a second thought.”

 

Jisoo winces, a little confused, at the incredibly detailed image Jeonghan had drawn up. What the fuck does he do in his free time? 

 

“Jeonghan! Listen, you  _ will _ get tutored and Jisoo, you  _ will _ do it well! Both of you, this can’t do more harm than good, so take the opportunity while you can, understood? I except the next test Jeonghan takes to improve by at  _ least _ five points, okay, Jisoo? Go, go to Jeonghan’s, study, whatever. Shoo.”

 

Jisoo finds himself outside the door in a flurry of arms and papers being thrown at him. Jeonghan seems to contemplate what to say for a little, so Jisoo decides to speak. 

 

“Look, Jeonghan, Ms. Ahn is right, we should grow up. We got off on the wrong foot there, so let’s start over, okay? I’m Hong Jisoo, and I’m going to be your new english tutor. Let’s try to get along, hmm?”

 

Jeonghan gives him a smile that rivals the one of Cheshire Cat. 

 

“I’m Yoon Jeonghan. Drop the ‘I’m your tutor and your friend’ act, I don’t care for it. Let’s just try and not to  _ kill _ each other, ‘kay cutie?”

 

Jeonghan brazenly starts to skip down the hall, like actually,  _ skip  _ down the hall, hands clasped and everything like a schoolgirl, but stops once he turns around to see Jisoo is still just standing there at the door. Jeonghan tilts his head and gives him a smile, one that turns his eyes into crescents. 

 

“I don’t bite, let’s  _ go _ .” Jeonghan turns around once and Jisoo feels like he’s walking into a mousetrap except the catch is that there isn’t any cheese.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well i was like ive got a SVT office au, why not make a high school one?
> 
> ALSO SCHOOL ENDS FOR ME IN LIKE A WEEK HELL YEAH
> 
> btw if you ever feel uninspired go on twitter i was inspired by a MemE to make this LDKFJSJSJ
> 
> should I continue or nah? i don't really want to waste my efforts on a story that you guys don't find interesting or worth looking forward to. 
> 
> if you're up for it, check out my other fics! there's like a bunch of bts ones and another SVT one, as mentioned above. 
> 
> SSEEE YOU GUYS NEXT TIIME if i update lol BYEe


	2. everyone's got a weird hobby or two, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, it's Sam again, posting on the authors behalf. If there are any comments, she'll respond tomorrow or the day after.

“Hey, does anyone want to write a fanfiction with me? I swear there’s going to be no smut in it.”

 

Seungkwan recoils away from the table when little bits of spittle and rice go flying into him from various directions. Water spurts out of Mingyu’s mouth in a disgusting stream. Jeonghan remains calm, however, still placidly picking at his sushi. 

 

Seungkwan wonders how he’s eating it cold right now. Students aren’t allowed to use the refrigerator. 

 

But alas, there are more important things to worry about than Jeonghan’s strange ability to just be able to roam about in the teacher’s lounge. As in,  _ there’s a fanfiction that needs to be written _ . 

 

“You want to write a  _ what _ ?” Seungcheol turns as red as the ketchup next to his fries and he coughs. He delicately covers his mouth with a napkin as he pretends to be embarrassed at what Seungkwan just said. 

 

Seungkwan rolls his eyes. Seungcheol loves to act overdramatically whenever he gets the chance. He said he wanted to write a  _ fanfiction,  _ not the next ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ novel co starring Minghao and the principal. Although it would be pretty amusing. 

 

“Did I fucking  _ stutter _ ?” Seungkwan pauses for that ~effect~. “I think not. For real, does anyone wanna co-author with me?”

 

“I’d love to, but I’m getting  _ tutored _ after school. Fill me in later, though! I’ll help you out with the plot and stuff.”

 

“I can’t tell if he’s kidding or not.” Jihoon places his chin on his palm and looks at Jeonghan.“

 

Jeonghan snorts. “Do you understand the  _ weight _ that the author as on his or her shoulders? They carry the whole fandom in their hands. Distributing beautiful stories and heart-wrenching tales. Truly, they are masters of the written word. The world would be a disgustingly dreary place without fanfiction.” Jeonghan pauses to suck in some air. “Jihoon, do you think I’d  _ kid _ about the revolutionary work of literature that is fanfiction?”

 

“Yeah, you would.”

 

“Thank you,  _ Wonwoo _ , for that astute observation.” Jeonghan sends Wonwoo a glare, who just stares kind of dumbly back at him. Jeonghan breaks out into a small giggle. “Just kidding, I so would. Seungkwan, what the  _ hell _ do you  _ do  _ in your free time?”

 

Seungkwan frowns. “It’s practice, you guys! Writing out stories that have characters that already exist really helps with writing in language! I’m doing it for  _ practice _ .” Seungkwan feels himself blush. He probably should have  _ led _ with the fact that it was just to exercise his creative mind. 

 

“Who’re the characters going to be?” Hansol doesn’t meet his eyes, burning holes with his eyes into the bread in front of him. Seungkwan shivers. If Hansol volunteers to help, he’s going to be dead. Because Hansol can’t write and he can’t think of a fun idea for his life. But he answers anyways. 

 

“I want to do it on EXO-CBX. I really,  _ really _ like Chen. A lot. Really. You know? He’s so fucking  _ delicious _ .”

 

“Funny thing, I actually hate EXO-CBX. And I hate Chen the most, actually.” Hansol violent tears a piece of bread off with his teeth and glares at absolutely nothing as he chews. He’s about to curse Hansol out but Mingyu interrupts his pre-planned speech out. 

 

“Boo Seungkwan, I hereby declare that as your friend, I will no longer  _ be _ your friend if you  _ ever _ describe another man as  _ delicious _ . Because that is an offense to my ears, a discordant harmony amongst-”

 

“God, did you finally crack open your first grade dictionary? Shut up and eat, Mingyu.” Jihoon flicks a crumb over to Mingyu, whose face is starting to take on the emotions of his spiel.

 

“Aw! You ruined my moment!” Mingyu stomps his foot and pouts, crossing his arms. 

 

“You ruined the moment when you opened your mouth. Jeez, can you ever just do one thing at a time? Eat your lunch.”

 

Wonwoo looks pointedly at the uneaten sandwich lying across foil in front of Mingyu. 

 

“Ah, sorry Wonwoo. I’m a bit annoying today, aren’t I? I should focus more!” Mingyu dutifully picks up the sandwich and starts eating. 

 

Conversation resumes amongst the rest of them, ranging from how Soonyoung and Minghao are in detention because they dared each other to break as many wooden chopsticks as they could with their ass to how Wonwoo’s doing with the new kid. 

 

“Oh, fuck! Jun!” Wonwoo shoves the last piece of kimbap into his mouth and nearly knocks half the table onto the floor as he tries to take his long limbs out of chairs as quick as he can. “I told him I would meet him in the library during lunch, gotta go!”

 

Wonwoo darts off and as soon as he’s out of sight, Mingyu tosses his sandwich onto the table. 

 

“Aren’t you going to finish?” Jeonghan waves a chopstick in the general direction of the discarded sandwich.

 

Seungkwan watches as Mingyu shrugs. “Wonwoo’s not here, I don’t wanna eat. He likes guys who are ‘skinny yet lithe’. I quote. I have a memorized list, actually, of what he looks for in potential boyfriends.”

 

“So you aren’t going to eat?” Seungkwan’s puzzled. No matter how much he liked someone, he can’t see himself  _ changing the way his body was shaped _ in order to try and meet their ‘ideal standards’. 

 

“Yeah.”

 

“That’s fucking dumb, Mingyu.” Jeonghan looks angry. “That’s really,  _ really _ fucked up. What the hell?” There’s a strange edge in Jeonghan’s voice, nearing onto pissed but still quiet. 

 

Mingyu smiles and Seungkwan’s stomach turns over. “Whatever. It might be worth it.”

 

-

-

-

-

 

Seungcheol nearly falls off his chair when Jihoon passes by his table. It’s not a conscious thing, really. All he saw was Jihoon and his body started  _ gravitating _ towards him. 

 

Jihoon notices. It’d be weird not to, really. 

 

“Are you okay? You look a bit dazed.” His eyes are drawn close like he’s worried but his voice has laughter in it. Seungcheol feels himself blush. 

 

“Y-yeah. Yeah, I am. Wanna sit here for today?” Seungcheol’s arm shoots out to point at the empty chair in front of him. He gives Jihoon a fake smile as he tries to not let out a squeal. What the fuck was he doing, he’s not a creep. God, that was so sudden and unplanned that the embarrassment rolls off of Seungcheol in waves. 

 

“I’ll save you the mortification of me turning you down like a dick and accept it. What’re you studying right now?” Jihoon slides in easily into the chair and Seungcheol takes a look at his notes. Even glancing at Jihoon made his brain fry itself. 

 

“Ah, a gentleman indeed. Can you hear the ladies swooning? Anyways, I’m studying for bio. Jeonghan fucked up last week really bad and we had to redo the lab and so our quiz got pushed back to this afternoon. Sucks.”

 

Jihoon rolls his eyes and places his own book on the desk. “First off, I’m gay, if you haven’t noticed. I tend to drool when hot  _ men _ come my way, not women. Also, Jeonghan sucks ass.”

 

Seungcheol grins. “Am I one of those  _ hot men _ ?” He wiggles his eyebrows and curls his lips up into a funny shape to emphasize the creepiness. 

 

Jihoon laughs at this. “Not with that face you aren’t.” Seungcheol pouts as childishly as he can. Jihoon giggles again and the sound is so,  _ so _ pretty. “But when you look like that, yeah, you so are.” 

 

Jihoon starts opening up his book and reading while Seungcheol has to pinch the inside of his thigh so he doesn’t start jumping up and down whilst screaming in the middle of the library. 

 

“Hey Seungcheol?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Can you stop making that really weird high pitched squealing noise? The teacher’s on her way over.”

 

-

-

 

“God, if you guys are going to do shit like that, get a fucking  _ room _ !” Jeonghan nearly slams an elbow into Soonyoung’s face as he fails around blindly to unsee what he just saw. Which was, Soonyoung pretending to grind and stripping (undoing a button from his shirt) on top of Seokmin’s thigh while Seokmin let out a heartfelt rendition of ‘Whiplash’ by NCT. 

 

“Honestly, if two friends can’t practice twerking on each other, I don’t understand  _ how _ you’re supposed to learn. Damn.” Soonyoung shakes his head and crosses his arm, pretending to be disappointed. 

 

Jeonghan groans. “Sneak into a club. Go to a motel. Do it at home. Just - respect the people in your general vicinity, you  _ dipshits! _ God, why can’t you two just like, start fucking already? Or date? Or something? Take out your sexual frustration  _ behind closed doors _ , not in the middle of the music room! Freaks!”

 

“We already do fuck.”

 

Seokmin says it with large eyes, starting at Jeonghan. Jeonghan sucks in a deep breath and tells Seokmin to fuck a blender while it’s on as he storms away.

 

“Why’d you say that?” Soonyoung’s suddenly annoyed with Seokmin. What the hell was he fucking doing? Saying he’s not ready to tell people that they’ve been together for over seven months now, but then joking around that they’re having sex to Jeonghan with conviction. (They do, but it’s beyond the point.)

 

“It was a joke, Soonyoung. People  _ joke _ when they want others to laugh. Or in this case, go away.” Seokmin gives him a strange look and goes back to looking at his lyrics and humming along with the song. 

 

“Yeah, but in this case, it’s  _ not _ a joke because it’s  _ true _ . You won’t even tell people we’re dating, what the hell are you  _ joking _ around like that for?”

 

“Jeez, calm down, Soonyoung. It’s not like I told Jeonghan that I get off to dogs or something, What’s wrong with you right now?”

 

Now, that makes Soonyoung pretty fucking  _ mad _ . 

 

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with me is that my secret boyfriend is a dick and he won’t tell the fucking truth, that’s what! He’ll joke around that we’re friends with benefits but  _ God forbid  _ that anyone finds out that we’ve been together for seven months!”

 

“Shush, not so loud!”

 

Soonyoung doesn’t scream because he knows that if he says something out of anger to Seokmin one more time, he’s going to start crying. 

 

“Fuck you.”

 

-

-

-

-

“Can you move?”

 

Hansol snaps out of his staring when Seungkwan slightly upturns his nose and snaps a finger in front of his face. There’s a tiny look of annoyance on his face. 

 

“Sorry.” Hansol steps away from the music stand and watches as Seungkwan uncomfortably reaches for the stand and adjusts it. But he struggles to make the metal part of the stand move a little more down. 

 

“Here, I’ll help.” Hansol moves in quickly and pushes down but with the combined strength of the both of them, the music stand hurtles down. Seungkwan yelps and quickly reaches out to prevent the papers from slipping off. 

 

“Hansol!” Seungkwan grunts and yanks the stand upwards but all he succeeds in is lifting it off the ground. The height doesn’t budge. 

 

“I’ll just - grab the-” Hansol steps on the prongs on the bottom of the stand, thinking that the stick would slide out of the bottom was supported. But Seungkwan doesn’t get the memo and his arms drop the stand. 

 

“Yeah, you know what, just hold - hold onto the - yeah, like that, wait no, yeah.” Seungkwan shuffles to see if he can pull up. 

 

They do a little awkward dance, moving around and trying to yank at the stand without touching or leaning in  _ too _ close. 

 

It’s more like, Hansol does everything in his power to get their hands to ‘accidentally’ brush against each other and Seungkwan being obvious to avoid it. 

 

Finally, Seungkwan lets out a scream. 

 

“Dammit! Fuck, fuck this! Fuck!” Seungkwan jostles the stand out of Hansol’s grasp and tosses the folder of music sheets that’s on it onto the floor. Grunting with immense noise and apparent pain, Seungkwan uses every last drop of will power into his puny little stick arms and screams all the while yanking at the stand. 

 

But the fucking thing still doesn’t move. 

 

“Hey, what if you just-”

 

“No! No, fuck the test, I don’t care!” Seungkwan loudly lets the stand crash onto the floor and storms out, ears flushed red and eyebrows knitted together in anger. 

 

It’s really fucking cute and Hansol sighs but a hand quickly covers his mouth. 

 

“Don’t sigh like that, it’s weird.”

 

Someone’s voice enters his ears but Hansol’s slow so he doesn’t realize who it is. 

 

_ Am I going to be killed? Also, how much of this did he see? _

 

“I am  _ not _ going to kill you, and yeah, I saw everything.”

 

Hansol blushes. Fuck, it’s Jeonghan. Out of every fucking soul in this fucking school,  _ Jeonghan _ was the one who had to see it. 

 

Hansol copies Seungkwan but more like, gallops in an unsightly way out the door whilst letting out a high pitched scream. 

 

Jeonghan giggles loudly. Hansol realizes also as he’s stepping out the door that it’s  _ class _ time, and  _ everyone _ saw it, not just him. 

 

So yeah, fuck him. 

 

-

-

-

-

 

Jun feels his fingers twitch nervously as Minghao stands in front of him, stance relaxed and arms crossed. His eyes look down at him from where he’s leaning against the table. 

 

Jun just tries to focus on his artwork. He’s struggling to keep the clean, crisp lines on his paper to remain, well, clean and crisp. 

 

Minghao makes Jun feel nervous. Not the good kind of nervous, like when someone has a crush on someone else. Whereas his heart still pounds loudly, it’s because he’s scared he’s going to get punched, not kissed. And his mouth dries out because he thinks Minghao would yell at him if he made a single noise, not because he’s anticipating a heartfelt reply to something. 

 

So all in all, Minghao scares the heebie-jeebies out of him and he would really like to know why Minghao isn’t working on his project and staring at  _ him _ instead. 

 

“Do you like abstract paintings?”

 

Minghao’s question startles Jun so much that his arm flails and drags pastel blue ink over his face. Maybe he should break his habit of tapping the end of the paintbrush against his cheek.  

 

Minghao laughs. Jun feels embarrassed. 

 

“It’s not that funny.” Jun is surprised that he even knows that much korean to respond but he mumbles it out. There’s a nice feeling of pride that washes over him after. His nose twitches because the cold paint is itchy. 

 

Minghao grins a little. “I know. But the blue suits you. Also, you can talk in Mandarin if you want. I’m Chinese.”

 

Jun ignores the first part of the comment. “I don’t wish to do so. I must master korean if I am to live here, no? Speaking in Mandarin will only delay my progress.” Jun purses his lips a little. “And blue does not  _ suit _ me.” He hopes Minghao isn’t hearing all of the little lilts and accented words because Minghao speaks with the same kind of pattern but it’s less noticeable. 

 

Minghao pauses for a little bit, tilting his head. Jun really just wants to get out of there to get the stupid paint off his face. Instead of a reply, however, Minghao walks to the back of the classroom and starts shuffling around to find something. Jun just huffs and starts to paint again. He hates it when paint gets on his face but there’s only ten minutes of the period left and he’s gotta finish this leg of the painting or else he won’t be able to finish within two days. 

 

Something wet and cold touches his cheek and Jun nearly ends up on the floor, shocked at the icy  _ thing _ pressed against him. Water dribbles down his side and into his shirt. 

 

“Here you go.” Minghao presents Jun a wet paper towel folded up a couple times. Minghao points to his nose with his free hand. “For you to wipe it off.”

 

Jun takes it. “Thank you. But why? Don’t you not like me?”

 

Minghao laughs. “I was just angry at that time. I have nothing personal against you. I know how hard it is to get used to a new school, a new  _ country,  _ I shouldn’t have yelled at you. Sorry. Please take this as a sign of friendship!” Minghao takes the paper towel of of Jun’s hand. 

 

Jun closes his mouth. Should he? 

 

It seems fake. 

 

But Minghao sighs and swipes the paper towel across his nose, pressing a little hard at the bridge. He holds it up and displays it to Jun. 

 

“All gone now.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Okay, I’ll be your friend.”

 

Minghao balls up the paper towel and water drips down his wrist. Jun’s throat starts to dry out, eyes not blinking and fingers curled up. 

 

“Great!”

 

Minghao flounces off to Wonwoo and a pretty looking boy with short blonde hair. Jun dinsticlty remembers getting told by the headmaster that he had to have natural looking hair in the school, so he had spent a whole Saturday bleaching out his purple hair and dying it back to a chestnut brown. He guesses that the pretty boy is an exception or something, but he can’t think of any reason why. 

 

He just goes back to painting in the rest of his lines. 

 

It’d be pretty shitty if Minghao caught him staring. 

 

-

-

-

-

 

Hansol’s bored. Writing has never been a strong suit of his, hence why Seungkwan always comes over to help him. He has a couple sentences down for his essay but it doesn’t sound convincing. But it’s really not his fault. It’d be weird if he knew how to get people to buy a TV from the 1950’s. It has got to be the most random topic to ever be given out but he goes with it. 

 

“Hey, I’m gonna go to Sofia for a second, I think I left my sharpener in there.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Hansol walks up the stairs and makes a right, stopping in front of a door that’s got a couple of pictures of Sofia and her friends and one or two posters. He knocks on the door lightly. 

 

“Come in!”

 

Hansol steps inside. “Hey, I think I left my pencil-”

 

“It’s on desk.” His sister looks up at him from where she’s laying down on her bed. Taking her earbuds out, she gets off the bed and grabs a rolled-up poster.

 

“Can you give this to Seungkwan oppa? I know he likes EXO-CBX and my friend gave me this of Chen. He’s not my bias, so here.” She goes back to her bed, putting her earbuds back in. It’s so loud that Hansol can hear the music play from where he’s standing.

 

“Ah. Sure.” Hansol makes sure to wrinkle the top of the poster and he clutches it tightly. Shutting the door behind him, he quickly walks into his room. He unrolls the paper and a four-by-four poster of Chen stares at him, eyes burning into his. 

 

“You fucking dick. What’s so good about you anyways?” Hansol rips the poster in half. And then half again. And again. And again. 

 

“Hansol, you’re taking so l- Hansol! Hansol, no!”

 

Seungkwan dives into his room and tries to salvage the stripes of paper. 

 

“Oh. Whoops.”

 

“Oh, Chen, I will avenge your untimely death! God, you beautiful, beautiful soul. May you rest in peace.” Seungkwan gathers the strips and places them neatly on his bed. and glares at Hansol. “Hurry up, you’ve got to finish at least two paragraphs today.”

 

“Yeah. I’ll be down.”

 

“Hurry.” Seungkwan disappears with a final glare. Hansol swears there’s a tear on his face. 

 

He glares at the pile on his bed. 

 

“Man, I hate you.” He flips off the paper shreds and makes his way downstairs. 

 

Hansol watches as Seungkwan's’ butt bounces up and down a little as he goes down the stairs and wishes he had even one percent of the love from him that Seungkwan had for stupid Chen.

 

-

-

-

-

 

Minghao scrolls through his phone as he waits for Wonwoo to come back with snacks. Deciding that Instagram has gotten old, he switches to a random game of tetris. 

 

“Get your lazy ass up and help me peel these oranges.”

 

Wonwoo tosses something and the object hits his head with a thump. Annoyed, Minghao throws his phone down and grabs it. It’s an orange. He starts peeling, methodically working his hands to peel it in one go. 

 

“Wonwoo?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I kind of hate you.”

 

“Figures.” Wonwoo pops a slice of orange into his mouth and leans on his elbows, splaying his skinny legs out in front of him. “What is it this time?”

 

“Why’d you make me be all nice to Jun! It was so fucking embarrassing, he looked like he was scared!”

 

“Yeah, I can see why.”

 

Minghao gets ready to thwack Wonwoo with a pillow but then Wonwoo scoffs. 

 

“You know, these moments kinda make me see why.” Minghao sets the pillow down. “But seriously, if he starts tailing me just because I’m chinese I think I’ll eat your dick for dinner one day.”

 

“Alliteration - nice. You’ve been paying attention in class.”

 

“ _ Jeon Wonwoo! _ ”

 

“Fine, fine. It’s because he’s our new friend, Minghao. I told him to start hanging out with us but he’s a little wary. Which is understandable, so I’m trying my best to-”

 

Minghao grunts as he throws himself off the bed and onto Wonwoo. 

 

“Fucking dick, you like him! You like him or something, that’s why you’re pulling this shit off! When I came, you threw a banana at me and told me to stop being such a pussy and stop crying, you dick, you dick!”

 

Wonwoo’s laughing so hard that he can’t fend off Minghao’s playful blows. He wheezes a couple times before getting a string of words out. 

 

“He’s - _ wheeze _ \- cuter than you!” And then he starts laughing all over again. 

 

“Seems like you two are having fun.” Minghao immediately jumps off Wonwoo and stands up. 

 

“Hello, Mrs. Jeon.” He purses his lips and draws his brows together, and flicks two fingers from his forehead in a fake salute. The woman gives him a fond smile. 

 

“Hey, eomma. Do you need anything?”

 

“Keep it down a little, Mrs. Kim’s here. Mingyu’s coming over in a second, too.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Mrs. Jeon leaves and Minghao wriggles his eyebrows in with a fake sexual innuendo lying underneath it. 

 

“Drop it.”

 

“I’ll drop my ass onto your dick.”

 

“Where the hell did that come from?”

 

“I feel frustrated. As it, the sex kind of way. As in, I’d really like to have my ass-”

 

“You can stop, I get it.”

 

Minghao sighs. “Whatever. Your dick couldn’t help anyways. But let’s talk, Wonwoo.”

 

Wonwoo pops a grape into his mouth and chews slowly. “Haven’t we been doing that this whole time?”

 

Minghao has to sit on the pillow in his hand so he doesn’t end up suffocating Wonwoo to death with it. But he  _ does _ really want to know something. It’s something that bugs him and has been doing so since they became friends. 

 

“I meant about Jun. What is your obsession with trying to push your friends onto me? You do it with Mingyu whenever you feel annoyed by him, am I your babysitter? I don’t  _ want _ to do it, it makes me feel like a dick! What did Mingyu or Jun ever do to me that I need to watch them? Jun isn’t even a part of our group yet and you're already making me do nice shit to him.” Wonwoo opens his mouth to say something but then he freezes. “What, you can’t fucking talk anymore? I just want to know  _ why _ I’m the excuse you use to keep Mingyu at a distance, too. He’s really fucking nice and you just act like a dick to him. Have I been reduced to like, a human roadblock or something?”

 

“Is that why Minghao’s always around with us?”

 

Oh, holy Jesus fucking Christ, Minghao wants to cut his mouth out or something when he turns around to see Mingyu standing in the doorway. Wonwoo shoots up to his feet, face starting to turn red. Minghao wants to look away, ashamed. 

 

But did he really say anything wrong? Wasn’t it better that Mingyu found out? 

 

“What, no, of course not! It’s because we’re all friends!”

 

Mingyu frowns and moves to the side when Wonwoo attempts to grab his arm. Minghao wants to sink into the bed and be swallowed up and never see the light of day again. Fuck, it feels like he’s watching a melodrama on TV or something, but it’s  _ so much more real _ .

 

“Friends?” Mingyu scoffs, crossing his arms. It’s more out of defense rather than anger. 

 

“Mingyu, come on, Minghao always says stuff that’s exa-”

 

Minghao gets  _ pissed _ at this. 

 

“What, no I do not! Wonwoo, you fucking dick, are you  _ seriously _ trying to pin this  _ on me _ ? You can’t fucking do that.” Minghao stands up and walks out the room, past Mingyu a little bit before turning to look at Wonwoo. “Text me when you  _ don’t _ feel like being a dipshit.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Minghao can hear Mingyu follow behind him, footsteps light but they drag against the floor. 

 

Wonwoo doesn’t try and stop them. It kinda makes Minghao want to cry. Instead, he taps Mingyu’s neck and then tells him to smile on their way out. 

 

“Thank you for your hospitality, but we have to finish homework!” Minghao pastes on a bright smile as he walks past the two ladies in the living room. 

 

“Yeah, mom, I’ve got stuff to finish. See you later!”

“Oh, Mingyu, make sure to come by tomorrow, Wonwoo said that you two have a book thing to work on.”

 

Minghao holds back a frown when Mingyu talks. 

 

“It’s fine, I can do it myself. I think I’d bother him more, anyways.”

 

-

-

 

Wonwoo sits on his bed, not really knowing what to do. He knows he should start by apologizing to Minghao, so he takes out his phone. 

 

_ Wonton: I’m sorry, Minghao. I know I’m a fucking dick. I’m sorry for doing something so fucking dumb like that back there. I don’t know where to start, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.  _

 

_ Mullet: yeah whatever, i know. It’s fine.  _

 

_ Mullet: talk to mingyu tho. I'm going to absolutely kill u if u dont make shit right with him _

 

Wonwoo reads it but doesn’t respond. He doesn’t know how to, anyways. 

 

He tries to sort out his mind. 

 

He knows he felt  _ anger _ at Minghao when Mingyu had walked in. It was indescribable, something that came out of nowhere. Like,  _ how dare Minghao say something to make Mingyu upset like that _ ?

 

If there was one thing Wonwoo would never let out, not even to himself, ever, it was that he really did like Mingyu. His presence was concrete, always by his side, always to himself. Pushing Mingyu onto Minghao was a way to ensure that he wouldn’t get too close to him, to not want to keep him to himself. Minghao was a sort of reality check for Wonwoo, but now one that probably wouldn’t exist. 

 

“God, do I like him or is this just because he’s always been  _ there _ ?” Wonwoo thinks out loud, hoping that saying it will make it clearer. But it doesn’t. Maybe he really does like Mingyu. But then again, it really just may be the familiarity thing. 

 

Wonwoo imagines kissing Mingyu. He frowns. It’d be uncomfortable. 

 

Wonwoo imagines Mingyu kissing someone else. He can’t make out who it is that Mingyu’s kissing but Mingyu looks like the next step is to strip. 

 

“Maybe I really do like him.”

 

Wonwoo lets a couple of tears slip out quietly when the image of Mingyu being with someone else flashes throughout his mind, in different angles, different backgrounds, different people. They’re random, one image with Jinyoung, one with Jeonghan, another with Hyungwon, another with Minghao himself. 

 

He feels like punching Jeonghan, Hyungwon, and Minghao so hard that they never wake up again. 

 

-

-

-

-

 

Jisoo sits across Jeonghan at the library. It’s last period - after, they’ll go to Jeonghan’s house for another lesson. 

 

Jisoo dreads it, really. Last time, Jeonghan had spent the whole time testing on a packet so Jisoo could gage his fluency. 

 

Jeonghan  _ must _ cheat, there’s no way he’d pull even an F with how horrendous his test was. He bites his lip and stares at the packet in front of him, trying to determine where to start today. Subject-verb agreement was fairly difficult to Jeonghan for some reason, but he suspects it’s because the Korean language doesn’t use it. Past tense and present tense was also a bitch. 

 

“You know, you don’t need to stress too much. I know most of the stuff in the packet, it’s just some rules with the subject-verb agreement that make me confused.”

 

Jisoo looks up to a placid-looking Jeonghan, with in chin on his palm and body leaning forward. 

 

“You screwed up the last test, Jeonghan. I don’t think getting a twenty seven percent counts as  _ knowing _ the material.”

 

Jeonghan smiles and pats Jisoo’s hand. Jisoo wants to snatch it away but it’d be rude. 

 

“You’re cute. It’ called  _ pretending _ . I have a B in that class, you know. Do you really think I’d fuck up that bad on a test like that?”

 

Jisoo blanches. “So, you’re saying you faked it?” Jeonghan nods, giving him a close-eyes smile. “Then prove it.” Jisoo pushes the packet in his hand over to Jeonghan and motions for him to do it.

 

“Fine.” Jeonghan starts right away, reading the lines and then working methodically t solve. 

 

Within twenty minutes or so, Jeonghan finishes with a smile sigh. “Check it.”

 

So Jisoo does. And he wants to break his pencil in half because Jeonghan wasn’t lying - this time, he manages to pull up an 85% on it. 

 

“Why’d you do it?”

 

“Do what?” Jeonghan presses his lips together and they puff out a little. His eyes widen a small bit. It kind of reminds him of the cow eyeballs, staring into his soul and remaining unmoving. 

 

“I don’t know. I guess I wanted to see how you’d react.”

 

“I don’t get it.”

 

“If you were someone my mother found to tutor me, you wouldn’t have hesitated to scream at me, maybe even throw the packet at me. But you didn’t. You made a list of what I needed help with and sat patiently next to me for two hours watching over how I did. You didn’t even look at your phone or the clock once.”

 

Jisoo remains baffled. “I still don’t understand what me being  _ normal _ , you know, as in not resorting to physical violence, has to do with anything.”

 

Jeonghan smiles, getting up and gathering his bag. “It means I’m happier than I thought to be your student. See you later!”

 

Jeonghan whisks himself away with a bright smile and Jisoo sighs. 

 

He’s going to have to re-plan his whole lesson. 

 

-

-

-

-

 

There’s a couple of things that Jeonghan knows he can do well. And within that list, there’s a handful that he can do  _ really _ well. 

 

One is reading people. It’s easy, being  _ trained  _ to do so ever since he could talk. 

 

Another one is flirting. 

 

And staring at a pretty boy isn’t really helping him  _ not _ want to exercise this talent. 

 

“Jisoo, don’t wear your hair so flat. It looks weird.”

 

“I was just talking about with subjects are plural, what the hell are you talking about my hair for? Come on, focus.” Jisoo raises an eyebrow. Jeonghan smiles - he’s not mad yet. 

 

“I mean, you look like those kids that have people tell them, ‘gosh, I love your hair! It looks so nice, keep it like that!’ And then those people turn around to discreetly chortle over how your hair is in fact,  _ not _ very nice at all. They talk about how flat and  _ dead _ it looks.” Jeonghan bites his lip purposely, making it red. He goes as far as to reach out a hand and musses up the front of Jisoo’s hair and pushes it up. Jisoo remains unmoving. But his face is uncomfortable. So Jeonghan pulls his hand away and goes back to staring at his work. “And you don’t want to be one of those kids that people discreetly chortle over, right?”

 

Jeonghan smiles and silently cheers inside his head. He doesn’t really have a specific plan of what he wants with Jisoo. Maybe a friend, maybe more. 

 

But not someone he’d date. He nearly snorts at the thought of  _ dating _ Jisoo.

 

Thirty minutes into the lesson, he stands up and lets out a yawn, stretching his arms out. He smiles as he starts at the wall, knowing that his back muscles are probably flexing a little. But when he turns around to check, Jisoo isn’t looking. He immediately frowns and clears his throat. 

 

“I’m sorry, Jeonghan, but do you have water? It’s kind of warm.” Still not the response Jeonghan wishes to have garnered, he looks straight at the table. 

 

“Sure. Follow me.” Jeonghan wanders out the large expanse of his living room and into the equally impressive-in-size kitchen.

 

“Thanks. By the way, where’s your mom? I need to talk to her about scheduling.”

 

Jeonghan opens his fridge and grabs a cold water bottle. “I live alone. All questions about scheduling go through me.” He hands the bottle to Jisoo. 

 

“What? Isn’t that illegal? You aren’t even an adult yet.” Jisoo looks lost.

 

Jeonghan can’t help but to snort (unattractively) and roll his eyes. “It is, unless your parents can buy own the police. Isn’t it nice being rich?” The last sentence comes out sarcastic and Jeonghan hopes Jisoo doesn’t think he sounds like a brat.

 

Jisoo takes a sip of his water and Jeonghan makes it a point to follow the bob of his adam’s apple. Jisoo flushes a little and stops drinking. 

 

“Oh. So you’re a chaebol?”

 

“Don’t use that word around me, it’s disgusting.” Jeonghan means to say it lightly but he can’t help the repulsion that creeps into his voice. “I’m never going to be one of those.”

 

“Okay.” He doesn’t push for more. 

 

“Do you want ice cream?”

 

“Sure?”

 

“Okay, get your shoes.”

 

“Why?”

 

Jeonghan laughs and moves close to Jisoo, and then taps his nose. “You’re cute. You think I have food lying around? I’m an eighteen year old teen who lives alone.”

 

“That’s not healthy.” Jisoo looks away, pressing his nose into his shoulder. His neck looks nice like that. 

 

“Whatever.”

 

“Seriously, Jeonghan, it looks like you’ve been living off of take-out for years.”

 

Jeonghan giggles as he shoves his socked feet into slides. Jisoo neatly sits down and places his sneakers on. 

 

“I have.”

 

Jisoo looks up, hands still on the laces but not moving. “Let’s go grocery shopping, then.”

 

Jeonghan opens the door and steps across the doorway. “Sure. But I don’t know how to cook.”

 

Jisoo follows, and the two start to make their way to the elevator. 

 

“It’s fine, I can teach you.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm going to keep this short and simple today. Here's a list of things that Min wanted to say:
> 
> 1\. the comments to yesterday's post on 'normal just isn't our thing, babe' literally made her so happy, you guys, like i actually thought she was going to start crying or something. thank you for being supportive of her, it means so much right now. 
> 
> 2\. chan is definitely coming into the picture soon, so just keep reading because his appearance is coming in the next one or two chapters!
> 
> 3\. Thank you for the kudos and comments so far, (please leave some down below! it'll cheer her up for real. ps this is sam, not min so don't think she's the type to want that kind of stuff. i just feel like it will cheer her up a lot when she does come back)
> 
> 4\. we hope all of our readers stay happy and healthy, and to please keep supporting these fics! the comments and conversations mean so much to her, as they would to any author. please stay in good spirits and keep yourselves safe and expect a lot more updates to come soon! 
> 
> (pps. this is my own gay ass speaking but damn i really thought wonwoo was gonna confess and mingyu was gonna be all like 'hell yeah lets get it' but alas min rarely writes smut so god im being starved rn sjsjsjjsj)


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